Estimated reading time: 11 minute(s)

(Sorry, this is kind of old news by now, but it has been very busy in the office so far this week, catching up from a week missed. I meant to post it the day it happened, but never got to it. Hopefully the many-days-old version is fairly accurate still…) 🙂

Just Can’t Get Enough…
Saturday morning I awoke fairly early (for a Saturday… for the Campbells) and snuck into the boys’ room to get Ian up so we could go help our friends dispose of some major tree parts they had stashed in their back yard. Grandma had come to stay for a few days with all of the events of the previous week, but Ian decided that since we were only going to be gone for a few hours, he could go with Dad and just spend the rest of the day with Grandma when we got back.

Boy, was he wrong.

We got to our friends’ house right around 9:30am. Right on time. They were just getting up and ready to tackle the branch moving project, with our help. All was going very much according to plan. Scott went to get the truck, while Ian and I did what we could in the yard to get ready to load the sticks in the truck when he got back. Leah, meanwhile, was busy making waffles for everyone in the kitchen. We’d surely get to them soon.

The first load went without a hitch. We piled up the pile in the back of the pickup and even had time to pick some pine cones from a nearby pine tree for a project Mom had earlier concocted. Ian neatly set them between some bushes, to retrieve once the work was complete. We piled in the vehicle (notice how many uses of the word “pile” are possible in one paragraph? Better not pile it on…) and headed to the unloading destination.

Again, without a hitch. Fast, easy, painless. We headed back for load #2.

This one was on the other side of the yard, so there was a bit of an adventure backing up to where the pile was. A small yard light paid the ultimate price in the process. It was survived by the rest of it’s luminescent kin. But all in all, things were still progressing as planned.

We began to load these more pesky branches into the truck. They were quite prickly, and difficult to manage as they were slightly larger than the previous batch, and also larger than the truck bed. Ian was still giving it his best though. He was just a little slower than on the last load.

Scott’s daughters slowly filtered out of the house, ready to help “the boys”. Leah peeked out as well and said that the waffles were ready if we wanted some. Scott decided that he wanted to finish this current load, and then we’d all have waffles. I kind of wanted a waffle right then – when they were hot – but, it was Scott’s project, so I was happy to follow his lead. Later, I would look back on that waffle invite and wish we had followed my taste buds…

Just a few moments later, I noticed Hannah was sort of “tending” to Ian. He was holding his eye, and in obvious discomfort. “Uh oh,” I thought, “He must have gotten poked in the eye.” So, I walked over and asked Ian what happened. Yes, he was poked by a stick. He said it stung. I asked him to let me see his eye. I wanted to see if a piece of a stick had stayed in there.

I was not prepared for what I saw.

Across the middle of Ian’s left eyeball were two large, clear gouges. A third smaller one was also visible in the middle of the other two, near the top of his eye. “Oh my!” I said. I just grabbed the back of Ian’s head and held him close and hugged him. I wasn’t sure what to do… it really looked like a permanent injury.

I remembered there was an immediate care center not 3 miles from their house. And, I thought I remembered that they were open till noon on Saturdays – it was only 10:30am or so! Nice! I told Scott I needed to take Ian there right away. We pretty much dropped everything and headed out immediately. Ian said his eye stung, and he couldn’t see anything out of that eye. It was all blurry. Poor Ian!!! 🙁

We rushed over to the Immediate Care place, only to find that they were NOT open on Saturdays! Our old doctor’s office is in that same building though (and they were open), so we went to see if they could possibly help him out in this obvious emergency.

No. They could not.

BUT, the receptionist did find it in her heart to send me 20 miles away to the nearest immediate care facility. 🙂 I said, “That’s really not the right direction.” But she insisted it would be faster than the hospital. So, I trusted her, and took her flyer that had the address of this new place on it… hoping we’d be able to find it.

Earlier that morning, as we were leaving, I grabbed a few items from my other pair of pants for this particular trip. My keys, even my wallet (which I had thought about leaving behind…) but not the cell phone. We only have a cell phone for long trips or for emergencies… I didn’t plan on either on this short trip, so I didn’t bring the phone. I would later rue that decision as well…

With no cell phone to alert our friends, I just decided I needed to help Ian ASAP, since he seemed to still be in a good deal of discomfort. And, growing more blind by the minute! I did break a few speed limits as I was navigating the back roads to this other immediate care place, but I figured I had a valid excuse. MY SON WAS GOING BLIND!!!

We finally got there at… um… actually I have no idea. I don’t have a watch either. 🙂 But, it was about a 20-25 minute drive. Found the place no problem, but when we walked through the doors, we noticed “the problem”.

EVERYONE decided today was the best day for an emergency.

The room was packed, but I figured we needed help, so I went up and signed us in. I filled out form after form after form. Ian was still just holding a cold washcloth over his closed left eye. He would take it off every once in a while so I could check his eye. I probably asked him for “status reports” about every 10 minutes. Probably even more often. 🙂 We passed the time that way, as well as watching the TV that was on (playing Mickey’s Christmas DVD) or just the many people who were in that tiny room.

The minutes passed VERY slowly. I attempted to find a pay phone to call Jen. No luck there. Patients were being called back about every FIFTEEN minutes. It was bad. Very, very bad. We waited, and waited… and WAITED. FInally, nearly an hour had passed and Ian’s periodic reports kept getting better. His eye kept looking a little better too. I started to think that maybe we had overreacted and this thing would fix itself with a few eye drops and a little time. So, I went up to the receptionist and sheepishly asked that she remove us from the queue. (We were second in line by then, so she was a bit puzzled, but gladly obliged as there was a room full of other patients who would happily take our spot!)

We made a quick exit and headed for the Target that was just around the corner from where we were. I figured we’d ask the pharmacist what eye drops we should use, or if we needed to do something else. They could certainly help, right?

We were pulling into the parking lot when I saw Rochester Optical in the same Target plaza!!! SURELY they could help us, right?!? They are an OPTICAL place, after all… So, we parked near there and hopped out and briskly walked up to the store.

I explained our situation to the solitary employee there that day. He was understanding, but basically let us know he couldn’t help us. He recommended we head to the nearest hospital (which is well over 30 miles from our home) and get Ian’s eye checked out for sure. I really wanted it to just be over (I was QUITE tired of being in hospitals and waiting rooms and doctors’ offices that week). But he was probably right.

Before we left, I asked if I could use his phone. He happily agreed and I was finally able to give Jen a call and fill her in on the adventure thus far. In my conversation with her, I decided my initial plan would be fine, so we ended up going to Target and buying the pharmacy’s recommended eye drops. We went straight to their public restroom and dropped some into Ian’s eye! (I made sure that there were no warnings about applying to deeply scratched eyeballs first…). Actually, it seemed to help. His eyes cleared up pretty quickly, so I was optimistic that our ordeal was over.

There is a Taco Bell at that plaza that we will patronize on occasion, so I asked Ian if he’d like a Taco. He excitedly said, “YES!!” So, Dad & Ian shared a little taco lunch. I made sure Ian didn’t get hot sauce, so that he didn’t inadvertently rub it into his eyes!!!! But even with that precaution, his eyes started stinging again, and I could see it getting red again. When we left the restaurant, I put more drops in his eye, and this time it stung, Ian said.

Looks like we’re headed to the hospital.

As we were driving there, I told Ian the story of his birth-day (which I hope to post here on this blog before his next birthday!). We were driving up that very same road, except Jen’s dad was driving at very high speeds. I told Ian what all of us were doing that day. It was a fun way to pass the time, and to reminisce.

It was not too long before we arrived at the hospital. We pulled in and looked for a good place to park. I was told they had a good opthalmology department, so actually, I was looking for that instead of the emergency entrance. We passed by that and drove around the campus. Everywhere we went, parking seemed nearly (or completely) inaccessible! It was crazy. We found the opthalmology place (by sheer, blind luck!) and tried a couple doors… but that’s where the luck ran out. I was parked in a 5 minute spot, so we went back around and just settled on the emergency entrance. BUT, it still took four or five tries to find a lot where we were authorized to park! Everything we found was for doctors or some other “authorized personnel”! Crazy!

Finally finding the entrance, we had to nagivate lots of strange hallways as the hospital is currently under some major remodeling construction work. We found an information desk and they pointed us in the right direction. I was very tired by now, and Ian’s eye continued to bother him and was still pretty red. My face was probably getting a little red (both from tiredness and frustration) but we pressed on. I figured we had to be kind of close!)

We reached the registration line for the emergency place and got in line. The lady behind the window took about a full minute to even acknowledge we were there (that was kind of strange) and without looking up said, “I’ll be with you in a minute”. Nice. More waiting. Finally, she said, “Can I help you?” I said, “I hope so…” and stepped up to the window. That’s where it got kind of nice… she asked if we were there for Ian, and when I said yes, she directed us over to a Pediatric Emergency area … where we walked right through to another registration desk.

When we stepped into that next area, a friendly girl greeted us and had us come right back to a room where she took Ian’s temperature and weight and other things… and very quickly assigned us to room two. Things were moving right along! That was a very nice moment in a long, loooong day.

Problem was, it turned out to only be a very brief moment.

We waited close to an hour – no, probably over an hour – until a doctor finally came in to see us. Actually, I was a bit startled, and puzzled, when the doctor finally did come in. My first thought was, “What’s she doing here?” I had forgotten at that point that someone was actually going to come and help us. I thought maybe we were just banished to this tiny room for all eternity I suppose… 🙂

We were not out of the woods just yet. She took a quick look at Ian’s eye (which had gotten much better by now) and then just left the room. Where did she go? No one might ever know… BUT, she came back and took us out to the hallway to do the eye chart thing. Ian’s good eye was 20/25 vision, his bad eye… was bad. About 20/50. I think that’s pretty bad. So, she went to get another doctor. When this doctor finally came, he put some strange iodine stuff in Ian’s eye (because I don’t think he could see the scratch either!) and then shone a cool black light on it. SURE ENOUGH there was a NASTY, long scratch right acrosss the middle of Ian’s pupil. A corneal abrasion, they said.

Things moved fairly quickly from there. They gave us some vaseline based goop to put in Ian’s eye 3 or 4 times a day until it got better. It was pretty strange to be sure, but it did help it heal. We got the stuff, the papers, and even a cool gift from some girls that were there giving out christmas presents to kids in the pediatric emergency wing that day! 🙂

When we got in the van, Ian and I were reliving the day a bit. I put on some music and we were talking, Ian from the back seat of course. After not five minutes, the replies stopped. I turned my head around and sure enough… Ian was asleep. 🙂 It was about a 45 minute trip home, so Ian got a nice, well-deserved nap to end an adventurous morning!

Now it’s almost a week later, and Ian’s eye has healed completely. How crazy is that!?? Our bodies (and maybe especially our eyes) are amazing. That was a really bad scratch that obviously affected his vision a lot… but now he’s completely back to normal. Just amazing.

So that was our day… and our week. We’ve managed to stay out of hospitals since last Saturday, and for that… I am very, very grateful. 🙂